J&J Snack Foods has entrusted the safety of loading dock employees at its Pennsauken (NJ) warehouse to Castell’s Salvo. J&J wanted to implement a process on their loading docks that would protect their employees against accidents associated with unscheduled truck departure. “We’d had several near misses”, explains Phil Heffelinger, Director of Engineering, “and wanted to find a product that offered a high level of reliability and low maintenance.” The previous safety system was often out of service and was expensive to maintain. J&J called on its local distributor, Eastern Lift Inc. Ami Payne, an Eastern Lift dock specialist, introduced the company to Salvo’s “trapped key interlocking”, a new approach to dock safety. Salvo locks out the trailer and then interlocks it with the dock door to ensure that the trailer can’t be pulled out unless the door is closed and the dock attendant is safely inside the building. J&J purchased an automatic Salvo model and carried out a 90-day evaluation. John Fitzgerald, Warehouse Manager, says: “We implemented the Salvo system and it worked very well for us. We now have Salvo on all our docks at the Pennsauken facility.” Aside from preventing unscheduled truck departure, Salvo offers J&J additional benefits. According to John Fitzgerald, “Salvo will prevent drivers from backing into the wrong door and being loaded, which will save our company time and money.” Since each Salvo lock is coded for a specific door, a driver would be prevented form inserting the wrong key into a control panel. Another benefit identified by Phil Heffelfinger is the savings realized on refrigeration costs from open dock doors: “Previously, our dock attendants would sometimes open a door prematurely while they waited for the driver to properly spot the trailer. Salvo will save us a lot of money on refrigeration costs as well. And, since some of the trailers are spotted or dropped at a door, Salvo also protects the trailer from being stolen.” J&J is now confident that the Salvo process it put in place is being followed, protecting drivers and dock attendants from accidents. The company was concerned about how drivers would react to this additional procedural step, but says that driver feedback has been positive. “Salvo has been the reliable dock safety product we’ve been looking for and more,” summarizes Phil Heffelfinger. J&J has a number of other plants at which it plans to adopt the Salvo process in 2006. Salvo was developed in the UK by Castell Safety International in conjunction with leading European logistics companies. Salvo is now available in North America through Castell’s facility in KY. Sales and installation is provided through an experienced factory-trained dock-safety dealer organization. J&J Snack Foods Corp. in Pennsauken, NJ, manufactures and distributes an expanding variety of nutritional snack foods and beverages for the food service and retail supermarket industries. Its principal brands are SUPERPRETZEL soft pretzels, ICEE frozen beverages, LUIGI’S Real Italian Ice, and MINUTE MAID and BARQ’S frozen juice treats and desserts. J&J employs more than 2,350 employees nationwide and had sales of $457 million in 2005. The company has been listed on Forbes Best 200 Small Companies five times.
